14 DAY TRIAL // The Syndicate remake has been confirmed as being effectively banned from sale in Australia because the Classification Board refused to award the game a classification and it seems that the game publisher is not ready to fight that decision and will not make any move to modify the title in order to conform to the MA 15+ rating.
A statement from publisher Electronic Arts says, “It’s regrettable that government policy in Australia is denying adults the right to play Syndicate. The game will be not be available in Australia despite its enthusiastic response from fans.”
It adds, “However, delays continue to force an arcane censorship on games – cuts that would never be imposed on books or movies. We urge policy makers to take swift action to implement an updated policy that reflects today’s market and gives its millions of adult consumers the right to make their own content choices.”
The main reasons cited by the classification agency for the decision is that the game features over the top violence like post mortem damage to corpses and mechanics that deal with dismemberment and decapitation.
The Australia division of Electronic Arts has said that it is encouraged by the steps that Australia has taken towards the introduction of a new rating, R 18+, which will deal with mature games, and plans to launch the game in the country once it is introduced.
The problem is that it might take as long as two years for the government of Australia to actually introduce the new rating category and create a mechanics for its evaluation.
Publishers, including Electronic Arts, have traditionally sought to tone down the violence in the games that have been refused classification.
Syndicate has been developed by Starbreeze and will be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 during the month of February 2012.